Trigg County missed out on a chance to take an early 5th District advantage with a 53-43 loss Friday against Lyon County.

Both teams entered the contest at 2-0 in the district after defeating Livingston Central and Crittenden County. Now, the Lyons are in position to claim the top seed in the district tournament.

“It was a tough, hard-played game,” Trigg head coach Mike Wright said. “I’m very proud of how hard our team competed tonight. We gave up only 53 points to a really good team, and throughout the game, we worked our butts off on defense.”

Neither team played particularly well on offense, with the Wildcats shooting 36.2 percent from the field and Lyon making 32.7 percent of its shots.

“We had a chance to extend the lead and put them away, and we didn’t do it,” Wright said. “We’d miss an opportunity to score or we’d turn the ball over or miss a blockout.”

Jaylan Mount scored 14 to lead Trigg in scoring. The leading Wildcat scorers on the season – Jalik Alexander and Zeke Wright – were held in check. Wright scored nine, while Alexander had six. Trigg also got five points from Javin Grubbs.

“They zoned us, kept Jalik pushed out on the floor and took away his penetration opportunities,” Wright said. “We didn’t get any really strong offensive output from anyone except Jaylan.”

The big difference came at the free throw line, where Lyon finished 15-for-22 and Trigg was only 6-for-12.

“More than anything, the little things got us beat tonight,” Wright said. “We had missed opportunities on offense, and we didn’t get very many breaks. We’re closer to where we need to be effort-wise, but we didn’t play well offensively.”

Still, the Lyons’ lack of size and their ability to use that to their advantage worked against Trigg.

“Everybody they had was a perimeter player,” Wright said. “We don’t have enough small guys to guard them. They didn’t look to post up much, and it’s hard for some of our big guys to guard their smaller guys.”

“It’s very hard to coach a basketball team when you’ve got guys that haven’t played in a while,” Wright said. “We’re in a situation where we need those guys. We were not very competitive with the guys we took to camp at Transylvania this summer, so it’s a blessing to get some strength from the football team and guys that have played before, but we don’t have a lot of experience.”